“With the introduction of the COVID-19 lab facility in Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) today, five major hospitals have so far been equipped with the testing equipment and machineries,” a health ministry spokesman told BSS.
Public relations officer of the ministry Maidul Islam added that the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital (BSMU) and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDRB) were the centres in capital where the testing labs were launched.
The testing facilities were introduced Rajshahi outside Dhaka while the COVID-19 laboratories were expected to be set up in next three or four days 10 more facilities across the country including Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Health officials earlier said the test results would, however, eventually be disseminated centrally through the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in Dhaka. DMCH director Brigadier General AKM Nasir Uddin, meanwhile, told BSS that the largest state-run health facility in the capital was nearly set to launch the COVID-19 testing free of cost.
“We have run trial COVID-19 tests today and launch the testing in full scale on the day after tomorrow; if not tomorrow . . . our virology department will work in collaboration with IEDCR,” he said.
An MMCH official said the main health facility in Mymensingh on the first day today tested four samples and “we are sending our reports to IEDCR as the central database.
(BSS)
